HPV and P
from Andrew M.

Dear Ed, I am a 24 Year old male from the Detroit, MI area.  I have accidentally stumbled onto your board while researching Biogen's upcoming drug [Amevive].  I must say, thanks for putting up this site, as I have never really realized that SOOO many people suffer from this condition.  My P is pretty mild and consists of a few small spots on the scalp, eyebrows, and reddish dots on the face and legs.  Nevertheless, it is P, and being a pretty popular guy, and being involved in politics and A LOT of social interaction it interferes slightly with my emotional well being.  My girlfriend is pretty understanding, and it doesn’t bother her a whole lot, she just bugs me to go see a derm all the time.  But I know that topicals don’t really do squat and the whole pain in the ass of greasing up your face just makes it redder and more obvious.  So I am just waiting for the day when I can treat my P with less obvious methods that offer less toxic stress to your system, and better, prolonged results.

My reason for writing you today, is that I strongly suspect some other causes of P besides genetic mishaps.  Five years back, I had a girlfriend who had HPV (human papillomavirus, a.k.a. Warts virus).  As nasty as it sounds, 75% of people out there have HPV and don't know it. 7 out of 10 women is, I believe, the official statistic.  Of course, I had all the standard testing done, extensive blood work just to make sure I didn’t have any other surprises.   Unfortunately, I acquired the virus, but it has never developed — just remained dormant.  Eight to twelve months after the infection, I've noticed little reddish dots on my face.  They turned dry and started peeling.  Over the next 4 months I developed plenty of them, and a nice quarter sized plaque on my knee.  Needless to say, I was freaked.  After testing and countless doctor trips, my initial diagnosis of psoriatic plaque has been confirmed.

I was a big biology freak in high school, and understand the inner workings of human immune system fairly well.  But the idea of psoriasis and HPV being related did not occur to me until recently, when the information that cervical cancer is in actuality caused by HPV in over 90% of the cases. 

Now, bare with me... Cervical lining is a form of skin cells, except that they are hyper sensitive and easily damaged.  It's obvious how the virus could cause the cell's DNA to mutate, that's no secret.  So I said to myself, No one is exactly sure what causes psoriasis, but we know it's a genetic mutation of some sort that triggers [or allows to be triggered. –Ed] the T-Cells to release certain proteins and attack the skin cells by mistake.    HPV does exactly that, cause skin cells to mutate so the virus can hijack them and basically use them as it's house.  Skin to skin contact of any kind spreads HPV .

So I looked a few places, mainly medical studies, library, asked some medics, asked a biologist and some human bio majors.  Everyone told me that it's a very big possibility.  But I couldn’t find any evidence of any studies done to back my idea.  Finally, a few days ago, I decided to check out what’s on the net and to my surprise I found a few things that backed the same idea.

I never heard of this anywhere else, perhaps this is new to you guys. Check this out for yourself.

“First Identification Of A Chromosomal Locus Associated With A Predisposition To Infection With Certain Human Papillomaviruses.
A Link With Psoriasis?” http://www.pasteur.fr/actu/presse/com/communiques/HPV5.html

The following comes from here....

http://www.well-connected.com/rreports/doc87full.html

An uncommon form of human papillomaviruses (HPV) called EV-HPV has been associated with psoriasis. Although EV-HPV is probably not a direct cause, it may play an indirect role in the perpetuation of psoriasis. (This HPV form is not the virus associated with cervical cancer and genital warts.)

It would be interesting to know who, among FlakeHQ readers, knows they have HPV?   

Is this new to you guys also?

Best Regards, -Andrew M.

*****

Ed’s Response:  Wow.  This IS new to me, Andrew. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and these URLs, which I found fascinating.  The Well-Connected report on P is probably the most up-to-date and complete review of our condition that I’ve seen.  I recommend everyone review it.  It contains information current through 2002.

I, too, would like to know how many among us are known to have HPV.  Drop me a line, dear readers, and I’ll post anything noteworthy that emerges.

Thanks again, Andrew.  -Ed

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